The present disclosure relates to communication interfaces and, more specifically, to push notification middleware in a mobile communication environment.
The prevalence of mobile smart devices has driven many changes in the way clients and servers communicate. Some of the changes include new client/server application models and new types of notification mechanisms. Push notification forwards notifications from application servers to mobile devices. Notifications can include various types of data, audio, or text alerts. In contrast, pull technology is based on requests initiated by mobile devices. Push notification can improve battery life of mobile devices as compared to greater power consumption of background processes typically running to support pull technology.
To support push notification, mobile devices can include logic running outside of the client. The logic may trigger some action on the client via a notification. When a notification is received on the client, the specified action may require the client to connect to an application server to retrieve or take further action on the awaiting information. A variety of platform-specific push notification transport protocols have been developed, including Apple™ Push Notification Service (APNs), Google™ Cloud Messaging (GCM), Short Message Service (SMS), and other proprietary protocols.
As applications are written that interface an application server to a variety of mobile devices, it can be challenging to handle the diverse body of notification mechanisms for compatibility across the various mobile devices. The challenges are further enhanced for application developers who are knowledgeable about application server environments but are not experts in mobile technology.